Kearney report finds auto industry now set to overshoot emissions targets by 75%

There's unusual weather ahead for all of us, and we're not just talking about our past few wet and cold days.

No, this is quite a bit more serious than that. A new Pathway Report, the result of a collaboration between Polestar and Rivian, has concluded that the automotive industry is set to overshoot the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 1.5-degree Celsius pathway by at least 75% come 2050.

Now, there's nothing new about an electric car manufacturer telling us we need to keep our carbon emissions down, but in fairness, Polestar does add that the report was done up by global management consulting firm Kearney, with open-source data utilised to model the automotive industry's emissions trajectory.

And here's another reason why you'd want to take this quite seriously. The IPPCC states that a temperature rise above that of this 1.5 degree Celsius pathway is going to lead to more extreme weather conditions, alongside a sizable loss of ecosystems around the world.

The IPCC has stated that all GHG emissions need to be reduced by 43% by 2030 and the report makes clear that the automotive industry, which accounts for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, is currently far off track.

Just how far off you ask? According to the report, if the automotive industry as a whole continues to maintain its equal share of global emissions, it would have spent its full CO2 for 2050 by 2035.

And it looks like there isn't going to be one easy solution to bring the emissions of the industry down. The Pathway Report states that the entire sector will need to not only make a full transition of battery-electric vehicles, but that we will also need to power this fleet with renewables. Additionally, there will also need to be significant advances in sustainable production and manufacturing.

Polestar states that this report already been shared with several of the world's leading car makers. Furthermore, these firms have also been invited to a roundtable to be held at the end of January to discuss areas of collective action.

The goal of this roundtable, will be to find a path towards unprecedented, relevant, and collective climate action for the car industry. Catch the full report here.